Grisanti to host human trafficking awareness event

Submitted

New York State Sen. Mark
Grisanti and the SUNY Buffalo Domestic Violence Taskforce invite readers to
join an afternoon of remembrance on International Human Trafficking Awareness
Day, Saturday,
Jan. 11,
starting at 2 p.m.

The 90-minute ceremony
will be held at the Newman Center located at 495
Skinnersville Road, right by the University at Buffalo North Campus. The
ceremony will include remarks from Grisanti, members of the law enforcement
community and the other community stakeholders.

Grisanti and others
would like to honor survivors of human trafficking as they seek to remember and
pay respect to the young children, women and men who have lost their lives
while serving as forced labor.

"My office is
dedicated to raising awareness of human trafficking in the interest of
ensuring the safety of Western New York," Grisanti said. "Over the summer, I
co-sponsored a human trafficking roundtable, where lawmakers, advocates,
victims and law enforcement officials all participated to discuss this
important issue and possible solutions to the problem."

The senator's camp said
human trafficking is a crime of a profit that has irrevocable consequences for
victims. According to the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human
Trafficking, for every 800 people who were trafficked in 2006, only one person
was convicted of committing a crime.

Human trafficking has
been estimated to generate $9.2 billion a year. Local nonprofit organizations
dedicated to resolving the issues have identified 16 different countries of
origin for victims of human trafficking, including Mexico, China, Thailand,
Kenya and Peru.

Human trafficking occurs
prevalently among disenfranchised communities. Grisanti's team said homeless
individuals who have been abused in the past and or economically disadvantaged
fall prey to human traffickers.

For more information
about the schedule of events on Jan. 11, call Grisanti's
district office at 716-854-8705 or email [email protected].